Jillian van Turnhout (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister. I very much appreciate the spirit in which he has come into the House in not opposing the Bill today. As Senators Power and Healy Eames said, I would hope that we could move this Bill forward because people are ageing. This is an issue to which I first came when I started working in the Children's Rights Alliance and people, including mothers and those who were now adults and were seeking their identity, came forward to me on the issue.

The Minister referred to the numbers coming forward on the register. I have spoken to people who have told me that the difficulty is that they go forward to the register with an open wound, not knowing that they can be healed, because they have to wait and hope that the other side comes forward. The Bill we are proposing involves being proactive. We are telling people if they come forward, we will seek to find the information and to work as best as anybody can. I do not think I would go forward at the moment if I knew that all I would be doing is lodging my name. I would encourage people to go forward, but I am trying to explain from where people are coming.

We can go back and forth on the constitutional argument. It is absolutely clear that we do not agree. The judgment in I.O'T. v. B. pointed out that the right to privacy does not automatically trump the right to identity. We are trying to balance that. The Supreme Court decided that the two rights must be balanced against each other. For example, the Supreme Court decisions in Tuohy v. Courtney said that the precise balance to be struck is a matter for the Oireachtas to determine. We feel this Bill achieves this balance in a way that is sensitive to the needs of all parties. We are trying to strike the balance that has been mooted by the Supreme Court and longed for by so many adopted people, their families and their friends. That is what we are trying to do.

Senator Power mentioned that many records are available. Genealogy and family history are hobbies of mine. I have worked with friends and others who have found their mothers were adopted.If a person has an unusual surname, it is likely that he or she can trace the information after becoming adept at using the records. If the person has a name that is not as unusual as van Turnhout - it might be slightly unusual whereas Power is not as much - it makes tracing more difficult. It is fundamentally wrong that one's surname gives one the right to one's identity. This is an issue for me. We must balance rights and I am a strong believer in the right to identity. We will discuss the Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015. It is a matter of a child's best interests and voice. The child's right to an identity is at the core. I will defend and champion that right. We are trying to remedy the situation via the Bill so that those 50,000 to 60,000 people see that there is some hope if they wish to choose to get their right to an identity. The deep yearning that I see in people is not something that can be made to wait. People are getting older. In the case of Philomena Lee it was slightly unusual, in that it was her son who died, but both had been seeking each other. They were denied that information. We are trying to provide such information through this amendment. I appreciate that the Minister and I can go back and forth, but it strikes the balance being sought by the courts.